The second British Stomach Cancer Group trial of adjuvant radiotherapy or chemotherapy in resectable gastric cancer: five-year follow-up

Abstract

The overall survival in patients with gastric cancer is low, even among those undergoing resection. It has been hoped that the development of adjuvant therapy might improve survival in patients following surgery when tumour burden was minimal and both chemotherapy and radiotherapy have been proposed as suitable for use in gastric cancer. Their value has been evaluated by the British Stomach Cancer Group Second adjuvant therapy trial. 436 patients entered a prospective, randomised, controlled trial of adjuvant radiotherapy or cytotoxic chemotherapy with mitomycin, doxorubicin, and fluorouracil after gastrectomy for adenocarcinoma. After at least 5 years, there have been 372 deaths of which 7 were due to surgical complications and 327 from recurrent cancer. Following stratified randomisation, 145 patients were allocated to surgery alone, 153 to receive adjuvant radiotherapy, and 138 to adjuvant combination chemotherapy. The overall 2-year and 5-year survival were 33% (95% confidence interval 31-35%) and 17% (13-21%). No survival advantage has been shown for those patients receiving either adjuvant therapy compared to those undergoing surgery alone. The 5-year survival for surgery alone was 20%, for surgery plus radiotherapy 12%, and for surgery plus chemotherapy 19%. Surgery, therefore, remains the standard treatment for this condition and the use of adjuvant treatments should be restricted to controlled trials.